Sri Lanka worker remittances up 3.2-pct in Feb 2018

Apr 22, 2018 06:51 AM GMT+0530 | 0 Comment(s)

ECONOMYNEXT - Sri Lanka's worker remittances rose 3.2 percent to 579.5 million US dollars in February 2018 from a year earlier, after climbing 8.8 percent in January, official data shows.

Remittances for the first two months were up 3.09 percent to 1,308.9 million US dollars from 1,268.4 million US dollar a year earlier.

In 2017, Sri Lanka ended the year with total remittances down 1.1 percent to 7,164 million US dollars.

South Asian nations including Pakistan experienced sharper downturns with lower oil prices reducing construction and other economic activities in the Middle East.

Sri Lanka's rupee collapsed in 2015 and 2016 due to excessive money printing by the central bank and has continued to fall in 2017 and 2019 under a real effective exchange rate targeting policy, encouraging people seek higher wages abroad. (Colombo/Apr22/2018 - Corrected February)